Pope Francis Authorizes Blessings For Same-Sex Couples

On Monday, Pope Francis publicly authorized Roman Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples, signaling a dramatic shift in the church’s attitude toward LGBTQ+ persons.

The Pope’s signature appears on a Vatican letter allowing the blessings as long as they do not coincide with a civil union or regular Church rituals.

The current verdict expands on the Pope’s invitation to honor same-sex couples last October and marks a departure from a 2021 Vatican doctrinal office ruling that forbade any blessings, stating that God “cannot bless sin.”

However, the doctrinal department has been managed by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, an Argentinian bishop and Francis friend who has taken a different tone than his predecessors since July 2023.

Pope Francis Authorizes Blessings For Same-Sex Couples

“When people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it,” Cardinal Fernandez and another official write in the declaration. “The grace of God works in the lives of those who do not claim to be righteous but who acknowledge themselves humbly as sinners, like everyone else.”

The new order says it will allow “blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex,” but it will leave decisions to “the prudent and fatherly discernment of ordained ministers.”

According to James Martin, a Jesuit priest who supports Francis and ministers to LGBT Catholics, the decision is a “huge step forward in the church’s ministry to same-sex couples” and a radical reversal of the Vatican’s 2021 attitude.

“The new declaration opens the door to non-liturgical blessings for same-sex couples, something that had been previously off limits for all bishops, priests and deacons,” he was quoted as saying by CNN. “Along with many Catholic priests, I will now be delighted to bless my friends in same-sex marriages.”

The Pope’s efforts to change the church’s attitude toward LGBTQ Catholics began in 2013 when he responded to a reporter’s inquiry regarding gay clergy by saying, “Who am I to judge?”

Pope Francis Authorizes Blessings For Same-Sex Couples

Francis has expressed support for civil recognition of same-sex couples and has attempted to wean the Vatican away from some of the harsh language it has used in the past toward LGBT people.

His support for legal acknowledgment of gay couples, as opposed to marriage, shifted the church away from a 2003 Vatican judgment that claimed it was “necessary to oppose legal recognition of homosexual unions.”

The Pope has also expressed his support for a US nun, Jeanine Gramick, who has been ministering to lesbian Catholics for many years. The Vatican had previously condemned her, but she recently visited with Pope Francis, who praised her as a “valiant woman.”

According to the Vatican’s most recent rule, same-sex and unmarried couples can be blessed “without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage.” The Catholic Church teaches that sex should only occur within marriage,

and the ruling states that the church cannot bestow a “liturgical blessing” on same-sex or unmarried couples because it would “offer a form of moral legitimacy to a union that presumes to be a marriage or to an extra-marital sexual practice.”

Pope Francis Authorizes Blessings For Same-Sex Couples

But the ruling says that a blessing can not be boiled down to “this point of view alone.” If it were, “a pastoral gesture that is so loved and widespread will be subject to too many moral prerequisites, which, under the claim of control, could overshadow the unconditional power of God’s love,” the ruling says.

According to the ruling, the Pope has maintained that the church cannot simply become “judges who only deny, reject, and exclude,” and that blessings must be understood in a broader context.

Francis’ acceptance of LGBTQ+ Catholics has played a role in the hostility he has experienced from a tiny but outspoken minority inside the church. His recent move on blessings is expected to be met with opposition in these circles.

SOURCE – (CNN)